I love to joke with my husband that the real reason he had a kid was to, one day, be able to take that kid to Walt Disney World. And this year, just in time for my son’s sixth birthday, that moment was finally upon us. Given the levels of anticipation and the fact that this was a first-time experience for our family of three—we decided to go all out. We stayed at a Disney World resort (the Polynesian), invested in the Magic Bands (they’re now rechargeable) and paid for Genie+, which enabled us to skip lines for pre-selected rides. Sound expensive? It was! Luckily, along the way, we discovered a number of sly cost-saving hacks.